Printed in the May/June 1990 issue of The Baby Connection News
Journal.

Infant Circumcision:

Foreskin Amputation by Force

Why does so much information about circumcision miss the
point?

The foreskin is a uniquely specialized, uniquely sensitive,
uniquely functional organ of touch. No other part of the body
does what a foreskin does or feels the way a foreskin feels. When
you cut off a baby's foreskin, you are cutting off one of his
means of perceiving, experiencing, sharing, and enjoying his
existence. When you cut off a baby's foreskin, you are literally
censoring his life -- you are, in fact, killing part of that
baby.

The vast majority of males who are given the choice value
their wholeness -- even beyond price -- and keep their foreskins
intact, for the same reason they keep their other organs of
perception intact. When you circumcise a baby, you are cutting
off a part of his penis that you can cut off only because the
person you're cutting it off of can't protect himself because he
is a baby. In other words, when you circumcise a baby, you are,
in effect, cutting his foreskin off by force.

Many males circumcised as babies see themselves as harmed by
that amputation -- regardless of the reason they were
circumcised -- just as they would see themselves as harmed if any
other healthy, sensitive, normally functioning part of their
bodies had been cut off.

The endlessly debated "health benefits" of circumcision are
therefore a false issue and would not justify depriving a baby of
his foreskin even if they were real.

(If someone restrains you -- at any age -- against your
will, ignores your screams, and -- with or without an
anesthetic -- cuts, tears, crushes, or burns living flesh from
your genitals without your consent -- consent not one person in a
hundred with the choice is, would be, or ever has been willing to
give -- how are you benefitted?)

(By thinking -- or pretending to think -- you've been
benefitted?)

If the experts parents trust to give them the facts about
circumcision aren't aware of the considerations outlined above,
why aren't they? If they are aware of those considerations, why
do they remain silent?